Garden ponds have been considered desirable by garden owners since before Claude Monet's Gardens at Giverny, France. However, with the advent of fish-safe EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) 14 of roofing liner material that can be formed into any convenient shape, and covered with rock strata, natural looking garden ponds with recirculating water have become a popular landscape feature. In a previous patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,991, a typical landscape garden pond is shown including an aeration-providing waterfall at a high end of the pond, and a skimmer-type filter at an opposing lower end of the pond. The skimmer filter includes various types of large and small debris removal equipment and a media to support the growth of nutrient consuming bacteria colonies, which reduce algae by removing pond nutrients, thus starving algae of its food source. Additionally, a pump recirculates water back up to the high end of the pond. Such a garden pond easily facilitates the growth of water lilies, water hyacinths, etc. and provides clear non-chemically treated filtered water for the survival and healthy living of gold fish, Japanese koi, frogs and the like.
Since the time of the filing of the application which became U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,991, we have discovered that improvements could and should be made to the skimmer filter used in garden ponds. For example, in the skimmer filter disclosed in the previous patent, a large sack-like net connected to the water inlet opening of the filter box must be removed if either the biological filter elements or the water pump are to be serviced. Also, no specific provision assures that all water must proceed over the weir. Likewise, since the filter mats disclosed therein are positioned in a horizontal stacked configuration in the middle of the skimmer box. Servicing or replacement of the water pump positioned below the filter mats requires the removal from the skimmer box of all filter mats.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention, generally stated, to provide an improved skimmer filter for a garden pond that includes distinct functions thereof which may be serviced or replaced without removing or discontinuing other distinct functions of the skimmer filter.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved skimmer filter for a garden pond wherein water flowing into the skimmer box does not bypass the weir.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved skimmer filter for a garden pond that may be cleaned by draining the skimmer box completely and then turning off the water pump.
A still further object of the present invention is the provision of an improved skimmer filter including an improved pond drain having an opening adjacent the deepest portion of a pond and an exit into the skimmer filter.